Fostering
Change Hope for the Foster Care System
BY HEATHER M. ROSS
new rule, proposed by the Administration for
Children and Families (ACF), aims to support keeping families
together through kinship care.

Rob Scheer remembers his
own trash bag from childhood
18 Washington FAMILY
MAY 2023
helps to build a positive self-image,”
explains Pam Hoehler, director of place-
ment services at Adoptions Together, in
Catonsville. “When children know their
roots, they feel a stronger sense of con-
nection to their culture and community
of origin and have a better sense of [self].”
The ACF rule would aff ect child wel-
fare agency licensing standards, revising
the defi nition of “foster family home” to
reduce licensing delays.

The sooner licensing can be com-
pleted, the more time children get with
people known to them or with loved ones.

The rule was proposed (on Feb. 14) to
help children stay closer with their fami-
lies and combat the risks associated with
living in the foster care system.

However, not everyone is optimis-
tic about the proposed regulation. Past
eff orts to support kinship care have had
mixed success.

“The system has never been worse,
but it’s never been better,” says Rob
Scheer, whose nonprofi t supports foster
families. “It’s the same thing they tried
to do before, but we don’t have enough
foster homes as is.”
Despite the positive change that
would come from keeping children
in homes with their kin, experts agree
that we cannot ignore the fact that the
foster care system is overburdened.

It’s important to get to the root of the
issue—the need for foster homes.

An Overburdened System
Scheer, who lives in Gaithersburg,
Maryland, is the founder of Comfort
Cases, an international nonprofi t based
in Rockville dedicated to bringing dignity
and hope to young people experiencing
foster care by providing backpacks fi lled
with personal care and comfort items for
the children.

Scheer has fi rsthand experience,
both as a child who experienced fos-
ter care and as a parent. He adopted
his children from foster care with his
husband, Reece.

“All fi ve of my children arrived carrying
the trash bag,” Scheer says, remember-
ing his own trash bag from childhood.

“It’s letting them know they don’t mat-
ter—that they’re disposable. These kids
deserve more than a trash bag.”
On a recent trip to Kansas, Scheer
says he saw three young girls sleeping
in the foster care offi ce because they
had no placements. This situation is not
All five of my children arrived carrying the
trash bag. It’s letting them know they don’t
matter — that they’re disposable. These
kids deserve more than a trash bag.

— ROB SCHEER
TRASHBAG: SMALLCHILD /ISTOCK; BACKGROUND: GOKCEMIM/DIGITALVISION VECTORS
BOY: JUANMONINO/E+//GETTY IMAGES PLUS; SCHEER COURTESY OF COMFORT CASES
ACF is a division of the U.S. Department
of Health and Human Services (HHS),
which reports the number of youth in
foster care has been on the rise every
year since 2012.

But the proposed rule would help
reduce the number of children in fos-
ter care by making it easier to connect
children with their “kin” — which HHS
defi nes as including people who are
related to the child by blood, marriage
or adoption, or who have an emotion-
ally signifi cant relationship to the child,
like godparents or close
family friends.

“When children are
placed with relatives/
kin, they can main-
tain a connection
to their roots,
which ulti-
mately